The Most Creative Storytellers for Startups

HeyKiki: Learn, practice, teach, explore

A little over a month ago I received an advertisement in the mail that has proven to be entirely inconvenient. It was an advertisement for the Oakland marathon. This consists of a 5K, 10K, and half and full marathons in late March, 2011. They sent it months in advance leaving plenty of time to train for it. Slowly the seed of anticipation began to grow. The recollections of the last time I ran a half marathon all came rushing back and I started to think about doing it again. Then I stepped on the scale and realized I’m 10 to 15 pounds over what I need to be to complete it in a reasonable time.

I considered the options and began attending classes at the gym. Boot camp, Yoga, spin class- anything to jump start my lackadaisical workouts into gear. For the record, boot camp is exactly what the doctor ordered for quickly getting in shape. Finding partners, workout buddies, people to play basketball, soccer, or whatever your favorite hobby is can be challenging though. It essentially comes down to looking on Craigslist, or to your network of friends. Craigslist has the obvious problem that most ‘people’ are actually organizations selling you something. Many of those that claim to be experts are of varying competency. It’s pretty much a free for all and hit or miss when looking for partners are teachers.

Into this space of people wanting to meet for a quick game of tennis, to those training to run ridiculously long distances, comes HeyKiki. HeyKiki is a social platform that connects individuals with trusted local instructors and practice partners. Pick your favorite hobby, register for a free account, and the fun can begin.

First, we must introduce the mascot- Kiki. Kiki is a green little guy that embodies the spirit of life, pursuit, activity, learning, and sharing. He’s your guide throughout the HeyKiki site as a cheerleader and assistant. Once we’ve met Kiki, we can begin to explore the site. For instructors they can list classes and leave a full bio of their expertise and qualifications so students can find them. People looking to learn a new skill can then browse through them looking for a good match. For those who already know what they want to do and how to do it they can post to the practice section to look for partners. Then finally is the explore section where you can search all the users and all the sections of the site. In the Explore section you can see what others are up to, and what’s most popular.

Meet Kiki!

HeyKiki is at its core a social networking site. You can message people, make buddies, and connect. What makes it fun is the entire site revolves around your hobbies. Of course, it’s not limited to physical endeavors. You can find art tutors, programming tutors, or buddies. Multi-million dollar start-ups could be founded by the relationships made at HeyKiki.

The best thing about HeyKiki is that it connects you with people online, but encourages its members to get off their computers and out into the world. We all use social networking sites to make friends. But sometimes getting out in the sun, or at least interacting with others is good for you. In fact, HeyKiki was conceived in such an environment- walking through Central Park, NY, noticing the vast diversity of people and the activities they enjoyed. HeyKiki is the place to go to find qualified instructors and fun loving accomplices whatever your interest may be. Be it learning the violin, or running a tortuous 13.1 miles, HeyKiki can help you meet people to enjoy and learn with.